Wednesday, November 19, 2008
One a Day vitamins: effectively promoting gender stereotypes
33 comments
Has anyone seen the completely stupid and utterly sexist commercial for One a Day Teen Advantage vitamins? It starts out by informing us that teen boys and teen girls come from "two different planets." Then, we learn that there's a boy's formula and a girl's formula, of course cleverly identified by blue and pink boxes. The vitamins are designed to cater to the specific "health concerns" of teen boys and girls, meaning One a Day Teen Advantage for Him supports his "healthy muscle function," and One a Day Teen Advantage for Her helps her "healthy skin."
Because all teen girls care about is looking good, while all teen boys want to be body-builders. Thanks for looking out for us, One a Day.
Posts
November 19, 2008 at 2:09 PM
Ridiculous isn't it? I can understand the vitamins for women and men, since the ones for women promote reproductive, breast, and bone health, and the ones for men promote prostate health. It would be better if it was more preventative uses than the ones for guys builds muscle and the ones for girls helps the skin... I know plenty of guys who are obsessed over their skin and especially athletic girls who want muscle strength.
November 19, 2008 at 2:29 PM
Considering there are only slight difference to what vitamins males & females require (women need more iron & calcium, whereas too much iron can actually be bad for men, etc) the way they promote all most vitamins is rather silly. They make it almost seem like they're competing brands or something.
I understand the need to reiterate that they're formulated separately, by why you have to alienate boys & girls from each other beyond me.
November 20, 2008 at 4:15 PM
It doesn't even say anything about building up muscle.. it says "healthy muscle function." Isn't that something all human beings (or really, all living creatures) should have? HEALTHY muscle function? And clear skin, I mean that's important for all of us because don't we all have skin? Unless the guy's vitamin's are for penis muscle function, and the girl's vitamins are for healthy labial skin, I don't see why the fuck there needs to be the distinction.
December 2, 2008 at 11:58 PM
hey, i found your blog while looking for a link to that commercial to put in a rant i was going to go on on MY blog... i'm so glad other people noticed the absurdity of this
December 6, 2008 at 10:55 AM
I really don't see the problem here. Trust me...I'm the type of girl that bench presses, lifts weights, has a six pack...and I'm only 13. my brother teases me for it everyday, and I alwasy defend that girls can do anything boys can do, but there are certain vitamins and such like calcium that girls need more of. This is not sexist, it's smart.
December 8, 2008 at 3:54 AM
Got your blog while searching information about multivitamins & found it so funny.
January 12, 2009 at 11:28 AM
I saw the commercial for the first time this weekend, and it struck me as unabashedly sexist. But I'm thinking that maybe they think it's allowable because they offer adult vitamins in specific men's and women's formulas...
January 13, 2009 at 5:25 PM
I saw this commercial about a month ago, and I've been looking for a copy of it ever since. I completely agree with everyone that it's a completely sexist commercial reproducing unequal relations between men and women. It seems like some have responded that men and women do in fact need separate things (like calcium and iron). However, these vitamins are marketed to give women supplements for "healthy skin" and men "healthy muscle function" (simply reproducing ideals of beauty and brawn). At any rate, if anyone has a copy of this video, knows a link to get to it, or can find it on youtube, please post it back to this site.
February 23, 2009 at 3:42 PM
the guy in it is really hot.
and i don't think there's anything wrong with establishing a difference between girls and boys.
March 11, 2009 at 3:31 PM
I just saw this commercial was completely disgusted. I am so glad other people immediately felt the same way I did! Thank you for your posting.
March 13, 2009 at 5:14 PM
Please boycott One a Day Teen Advantage for "him," and "her." The slogan states that the product promotes
"Healthy skin" (for Her)and
"Healthy muscle function" (for Him).
These statements obviously have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
The ad is completely sexist. It additionally perpetuates the stereotype of women being frail and preoccupied only with vanity, while men should aspire only to be muscular and strong. The ad also states that there should be gender specific teen multivitamins, suggesting that men and women have different biological make-ups.
Please join me in signing this petition to help pull the ad off the air, and boycott this ridiculous product that promotes harmful gender stereotypes to our young men and women.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/boycott-one-a-day-teen-advantage
March 23, 2009 at 8:57 PM
I just don't see the big deal here. Yes, many girls want to build muscle, and many boys are concerned about their skin, but girls and boys have different body types and due to their body type they have gender-specific needs. I see no harm in fulfilling these needs. I am a girl, and the healthy skin part seems great to me. I also take calcium pills and get lots of protein in my diet to build muscle. I just don't see why the vitamins are big deal. :)
March 27, 2009 at 5:28 AM
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April 2, 2009 at 12:41 AM
I don't think they're being sexist at all. They do differentiate between them but that only goes to show how consumers (which in this case parents) differentiate between their sons and daughters. But if you did some research and took a look at the ingredients, all the ingredients for BOTH boy and girl formulas have the recommended amount of vitamin/mineral/etc for daily intake. The girls formula just MORE of the daily intake of the vitamins that will help with healthy skin, nails, hair, etc and the boys formula has MORE of the daily intake for healthy muscle growth. But not one formula is lacking any vitamin/mineral/ingredient for a healthy teen in general. They are simply adding more of one ingredient/vitamin/mineral to each formula depending on how a females/males body works. That's not sexist, that's smart.
April 7, 2009 at 7:57 PM
You know, I would not be surprised if some of the pro-"One-A-Day" commenters have a commercial relationship with the product because the main way someone would get to this post is by Googling "one a day sexism" or something similar, usually with with the intention of making the accusation of sexism. And, really, what is the probability that teenage girls, especially those whose passion is weight-lifting, would see that commercial and go, "I bet there is some intense online discussion about this; let me go defend my vitamins!"
GLAY!
April 20, 2009 at 11:57 PM
can someone post me a link for this commercial?
plz
June 22, 2009 at 7:59 PM
@ Girl, Look At You!-I think that people are overreacting to the vitamins and i have no affiliation with the company. I actually typed in "one a day teen advantage" to get some reviews and to see the list of vitamins that are included. A few sites like this popped up, but before i had no clue that it was an issue.
June 27, 2009 at 2:51 PM
Haha, Girl, Look At You!, that's exactly what I did.
I wanted to find out [i]why[/i], exactly, there was the distinction, and if the two vitamins were actually different.
So far, the only significant difference I've seen is in the amount of Vitamin D and Thiamin.
The rest are mostly the same, with a few small differences, ex. girls have 30% calcium, boys have 20%.
Also, the boy's vitamins are blue and the girl's are pink, which is eyeroll-inducing.
July 26, 2009 at 6:57 PM
I don't thinkits sexist at all. I'm a teen male and I want to gain muscle, and my sister wants healthy skin. The marketing team is just stating what the vitamins are used for. Also, the blue and pink bok designs are just for appeal. If you stress the blue and pink, basically your saying that most parents in America are sexist. NO, I AM NOT ASSOCIATED WITH ONE A DAY!
August 13, 2009 at 2:08 PM
I think this is ridiculous. The vitamins arent promoting some sort of stereotype at all. They are just supplementing what most teenage girls and teenage boys want most. Its what the popular opinion of most teenagers have. If some teenage girl saw that her vitamins were going to give her strong muscles she'd probably freak out!! And if she actually did want strong muscles then whatever take vitamins for it. I'm saying this as a 16 year old girl that has been told many times over that she is wise beyond her years, this isnt a big deal. Nobody is going to think "Oh this is what i should be concerned about because of my gender" They are going to think "Oh how convenient, this is exactly what I need" It is rare you find a teenager that breaks the "norms" of what they care most about in their bodies. And when you do find one, they can just as easily find vitamins that supplement exactly what they are looking for.
March 8, 2010 at 2:21 PM
Don't really care about blue /. pink issue but dying them blue was a bad idea.
We bought the Blue Boys vitamin a few weeks ago. On the rare occasions when our son can't swallow the vitamin on the first try, it turns his mouth / lips dark blue.
He won't take them now and we are going to purchase something else.
March 31, 2010 at 6:08 PM
My question is, what is the point of boycotting a vitamin if it actually works? One a Day may not have advertised the vitamins in a gender-friendly way, but boys and girls bodies are different. Even I, as a 21 year old woman, bought the vitamin just the other day specifically because it promotes healthy skin and energy for girls which *gasp* is exactly what I need.
Oh, and for those who think that you only come by this by looking for "One a Day Sexism," I also came by this by simply searching, "One a Day Teen for Her."
October 9, 2010 at 9:22 PM
you guys are all gay. sexist commercial? who cares..look at every commercial nowadays..if this commercial offends you you probably shouldnt even watch tv...its vitamins, who cares.
March 31, 2011 at 12:01 PM
I think that all teen girls are crazy, I have a teen sister and she is crazy , she takes herself some crazy pictures and never takes her vitamins!!22dd
June 29, 2011 at 1:56 PM
You are clearly a man hater.
November 1, 2011 at 4:59 PM
I love all things related to vitamins actually I take a lot of vitamins because I love to be in excellent conditions.
January 12, 2012 at 2:14 AM
This comment has been removed by the author.
January 19, 2012 at 2:43 AM
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February 6, 2013 at 5:41 PM
Depending how you take it, it is very obvious that in the modern world all the mens wants to have a strong body and the womens wants a svelte body.
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